Figures released by a Northamptonshire weather station showed the county town experienced its wettest year on record during 2012.
Mike Lewis, who runs Pitsford Hall weather station, said Northampton saw a total of 882.8mm of rainfall last year, compared with 874.7mm in the previous wettest year, 1992.
He said: “The thing that everyone is talking about is the rainfall. Last year was the wettest one on record for Northampton. We have seen the repercussions of this with flooding across the county.
“Rainfall was below average at the start of last year, but for much of the rest of the year it was significantly above average. It’s difficult to predict how this new year will go.”
The highest temperature in 2012 was 28.9C (84F) on August 19, the day of the annual Northamptonshire Balloon Festival at Billing Aquadrome, and the coolest night was on February 11 with a temperature of –13 C.
Mr Lewis said he rarely recorded an official gale in Northampton, which involved wind speeds of over 39mph over a 10-minute period, but last year the town had gales on two separate occasions.
He said: “That is quite unusual. It’s been a little bit on the wild side in Northampton, weather-wise.”
Figures showed that for four days, wind gusts were in excess of 50mph and Mr Lewis said this was rare for an inland location like Northampton.
He added: “In terms of temperatures for the town it was an interesting year as there were some quite severe levels.”
Comments